[7] The search for and extraction of natural resources was the major focus of Branner's geology department during that period of Western development.
[9] The members of the Advisory Council are: Anela Arifi, Sandra Begay, Natarajan “Chandra” Chandrasekaran, Steven A. Denning, Ann Doerr, Jennifer Doudna, Angela Filo, Bill Gates, Jamshyd N. Godrej, Hal Harvey, Mark Heising, Martin Lau, Laurene Powell Jobs, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Steyer, Gene Sykes, Yi Wang, Akiko Yamazaki, Eric Yuan, and Fareed Zakaria.
The school attracts students from all six of the inhabited continents, and continues to be one of the most ethnically diverse Earth Sciences programs in the US.
Research programs in the SES continue to make groundbreaking discoveries about the planet, its environment, and human interactions.
[17] The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is one of three components of the Earthscope Project, funded by the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the USGS and NASA.
The SAFOD main hole was drilled to a depth of ~3.4 km in 2004 and 2005, crossing the San Andreas near a region of the fault where repeating Magnitude 2 earthquakes are generated.
In addition to the installation of these instruments, rock and fluid samples were continuously collected during the drilling process, and will also be used to analyze changes in geochemistry and mechanical properties around the fault zone.
The project is co-PIed by Bill Ellsworth and Steve Hickman of the USGS, and Stanford geophysics faculty member and alum Mark Zoback.
[19][20] Dean Arun Majumdar has indicated that the Doerr School is open to continuing to accept funding from and to work with fossil fuel companies,[3][21] drawing criticism from Stanford students,[22][23] faculty,[24] staff,[25] and alumni.
[28] As of 2023, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability was ranked as the fourth best Earth Sciences program by the U.S. News & World Report, tied with Columbia.